Document text
Accession no.
W 3644
WPA L. C. PROJECT UNIT
Form -3
I.Kliki.(211) Collection (or Type)
Date received
10,/) 0/40
Consignment no.
Shipped from
Wash. Office
Label
Amount
lip
Title .bar booking_ agenay
Place of origin Chicago, Illinois Date 4/4/461i
Project worker Alfred 0. Phillipp
Project editor
Remarks
STATE
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
1.
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
CHICAGO FOLKSTUTT
FOLKLORE
CHICAGO
Illinois
Afred 0. Phillipp
144th. St. Ridgeway Ave., Midlothian, Ill.
April 1 1939
"FAIR BOOKING AGENCY.
Date and time of interview April 8, 1939 7.49 p. m.
2. Place of interview
Midlothian, Ills
3. Name and address of informant Eddye H. B. Kendall, Midlothian, Ill,
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant. None. He's a neighbor.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you None
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
A small cottage at 144th St. acLawndale Ave. in Midlothian, Ill. Four roam
on first floor, and a small attic. House furnishings typical of middle-class
American. Parlor has a piano, table, chairs, floor lamp, and carpet, the
bedroom contains a bed..
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number lab which the material refers.)
334
FORM B
Personal History of Informant
AMERICAN POTYSTUYY
FOLKLORE
CHICAO
STATE
NAME OF 7/anal Afred 0. Philipp
ADDRESS 144th St. Ridgeway Ave., Midlothian, Ill.
DATE April 13, 1939
SUBJECT "FAIR BOOKING AGENCY."
NAME OF INFORMANT Eddye H. B. Kendall
1. Ancestry
2. Place and date of birth
3. Family
Irish
Ohio, 1891
Wife and six children
4. Places lived in, with dates Midlothian for past 12 years.
5. Education, with dates
Educated in a Military Academy in Ohio
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates Learned telegraph operating.
Later went into the "employment game." Now works part time in an employment
agency in Chicago, 174 W. Washington St.,
7. Special skills and interests All around office man. Special
interests miring money
8. Community and religious activities Is Precinct Committee man (Dem.) and
member of Catholic Church
9. Description of informant About 5' 8" in height. Weight 185 lbs. Bee an
artificial leg (right), other foot cut off near ankle. Ftom Hopping freight
train while a kid in Ohio. Smooth shaven. Loud voice. Corpulent.
10. Other Points gained in interview
FAIR BOOKING AGENCY
FORM C TEXT 1
CHICAGO FOLKSAW
You are perhaps familiar with the routine work conducted in a
general employment agency in Chicago. Maybe you've seen a scuzz barge into a
gyp joint and slip Jesse James a saw -and -a -half for a slug jub, and being
tagged a v. n. t. the placement clerk starts pumping and soon has him doing
his song and dance, so Hey? What am I talking about? My gosh, do I have
to explain everything? Oh well
A "scuzz" is an applicant with no vocation, although not
necessarily a common laborer. A "sawbuck" being a ten -dollar bill, a "saw-
an&a-half in consequence becomes fifteen dollars. A "slug" is $1.00 in U. S.
currency (one buck to you) and so a "slug job" is a position paying a salary
of one dollar per hour. The placement clerk has a card containing code letters
indicating the alleged merits of the applicant, and "v. n. t." denotes "very
neat type." "Pumping," or "to pump," is telephone solicitation. "Song
and dance" is the applicants' personal interview with the prospective
employer. So there.
Thele are other Chicago employment agencies, licensed as
such by the state of Illinois, that are less familiar to the general public.
These are the various theatrical booking offices. And for today's lessen
is "how to get the dough" we will devote ourselves exclusively to the "fair
booking agency" in all its wily and devious manifestations. The particular
clinic in which we will conduct our research is the -BARNES-CARRUTHERS FAIR
BOOKING ASSOCIATION occupying the entire fifth floor of the Grand Opera
House Building, at 121 North Clark St.
This veteran firm is the sole survivor of a long list of fair
booking agencies that flourished in Chicago during the "good old days," before
FAIR BOOKING AGM=
FORA C TEXT 2
CHICAGO FOLKSTU/Y
Major Bowes and the vaudeville agents horned in. There was the World Amuse-
ment Service, Ethel Robinson Agency, the W. V. M. A. Fair Dept. (a Kaitb-
Orpheum affiliate), the United Fairs Booking Association, the Weyerson
Amusement Company, the Earl Girdella Agency, the Joe Bren Productions, and
Various others. This was in the pre -depression era when hundreds of county
fairs throughout the middle west had gobs of filthy lucre to squander,
and fair booking agencies were created by God for the express purpose of
relieving the rustic of his burden of greenbacks.
It was customary for a county fair association to hold a meeting
in January or February of each year, at which meeting they voted appropriations
for their fair, which would be held the following autumn. Let us assume the
fair had voted ten thousand dollars for races, premiums, and free attractions.
This is merely an example, of course, by way of illustration. The ten thousand
dollars would perhaps be distributed as follows: Three thousand as purses
for the harness races; two thousand to be cut up into a number of prizes
for the best corn, cows, beans, bulls, lettuce, lambs, and other agricultural
products of the county; and five thousand for "free attractions" i. 0.
the acrobatic, aerial, and animal acts that perform between races on a platform
in front of the grand stand. This free attraction money was the grand prize
for which the Chicago fair booking agencies competed furiously.
Each fair booking agency had a number of circus or novelty acts
signed up for the fair season, usually from about August 15. to October 15th.,
and the acts were guaranteed a minimum number of weeks' work, most constracts
specifying at least eight or ten weeks to be played within the three-month
period. Each agency thus had for its objective the peddling of its own acts
FAIR BOOKING AGENCY
FORM C TEXT 3
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
lb the greatest number of fairs possible, for the largest price obtainable.
Unlike the agencies booking theatres the fair booking agencies do not operate
on a commission basis. The agency signs up a man and ':.aman aerial team at
a salary ranging from $175.00 to $250.00 per week, and then sells the act
to the fair for every possible dollar above these figures that the most
persistent high pressure salesmanship can squeeze out of a sometime gullible
fair secretary. An act signed up with a Chicago booking agency for $200.00
a week will frequently sell to the fair for $400.00. (Yep, that's one -hundred
percent commission. Did I hear you crack about state laws governing employment
agencies? Am, forget it, what's a law or two among friends.
The terms of a contract between the agency and the act is a
matter of strict privacy. And no "regular" act would even think of divulging
its contents, at least to the secretary of the fair or any member of the fair
committee. In the above instance the fair secretary, at the conclusion
of the fair, pays the act its presumed salary of $400.00. The act retains its
own $200.00 (actual salary) and forwards the remaining $200.00 to the Chicago
booking agency. In cases involving large sums the acts are not trusted to bring
in the swag, a trusted member of the agency coming personally to the fair
grounds to collect.
The financial transactions involved in the fair booking game
must have reached a staggering total during the "good" years. Consider, Dor
example, our neighboring state of Iowa with its ninety-nine counties, each one
of them running an annual County Fair. In addition there were always a vast
number of State Fairs, Tri-State Fairs, Fall Festivals, etc. During the prosperous
post-war years our own Illinois State Fair (held annually at Springfield, Ill.)
frequently spent twenty-five thousand dollars for free attractions for a
FAIR BOOKING AGENCY
FORM C TEXT 4
CHICAGO FOLEBTUFF
single week.
The principal sales medium was the lavish Fair Catalogue issued
annually. Each fair booking agency had its own profusely illustrated catalogue,
exploiting the "thrilling double trapeze act," "sensational high perch act,"
"hazardous feats performed on the high wire," "spectacular hand-to-hand
gymnasts," "Marvelous display of pole balancing," etc., etc., not forgetting
that "these acts are under exclusive contract with this office." This book
was essentially for rural consumption, and was calculated to amaze and astound
the committee of the Gizzard County Fair, in Arkansas. A slick city promoter
well versed in theatrical lore could grab off all the acts he wanted and from
the curb at the W. Randolph and N. Dearborn Street corner, for practically coffee
and doughnut money. Naturally the performers themselves paid for these
the prices varied slightly according to the size of the page, material,
etc., but the usual price was fifty dollars a page. The catalogues were
mailed out each year to the various state
program w.a also supplemented by personal
from the agency who attended banquets and
catalogues,
cuts used,
and county fairs, but this sales
contact on the part of field men
meetings held by the fair men and
attempted to sway the potential customer with demulcent palaver.
But enough of the drab business details. Let's turn to the
acts themselves, the performers, the actual workers and producers,
ppOile, the ostensible reason for the agencies' very existence,
the purpose of making money, which, as every right thinking person
the primum
aside from
knows, is
a secondary consideration on the part of gentlemen who run employment agencies.
FAIR BOOKING GENCY
FORM C TEXT 5
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
And so, let Benchley's Bounding Broomsti2k 2arry him where he will, our own
skinny shanks will carry us across the street from the County Building, at
121 North Clark Street, into an old elevator, and up to the fifth floor,
where we emerge into the spacious offices of the Barnes -Carruthers Fair Booking
Association.
There is a small waiting room separated from the large main office
by a low railing, and the sole furnishing of this waiting roam consists of
a very hard bench with a seat highly polished through continnuel contact with
the pants of the job seeking acrobats and aerialists. There are tAo or three
uncomfortable chairs, less highly polished, but equally hard. The low raining
affords an unobstructed view of the entire main office. Near the gate sits the
usual pretty girl at an information desk and switchboard. Out of sight,
in smaller offices, sit E. F. Carruthers and M. H. Barnes, the heads of the
firm. Sam. T. Levy, general secretary and all-around handy man, presumably
has a desk somewhere; but his continnual activity in every part of the office
precludes the possibility of locating it. A meagre complement of clerks and
stenographers completes the office personnel.
Time the spring of 1939, which Chicago is celebrating (on
April 10th.) witha snowstorm. We pour ourselves out of the elevator and into
the small waiting room. I say "we" advisedly. Although I am apparently alone you
are with me in spirit. (I hope.; The room was far more crowded than is usual
at this time of year. Many were performers that I knew, pals o former years;
but there were a few new faces, acts that were strangers to me.
""Hello Alfredo, what are you doing here?" Paul Armento greeted
me. "You've a stranger around the booking offices, aren't you?"
FAIR BOOKING AGENCY
FORM C TEXT 6
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
"Yeah, I just dropped in to say hellow," I answered evasively.
"You're looking good. How are you tumbling these days, still got your old
speed?"
"Well, I'm not exactly burning up the pad, but I can still
turn over," Paul was a mighty tumbler in his day. "I'm pulling more of the
easy routines now, like boranis and tinsikis; but I'm still doing backs in a
swing, and I can still pick up a high full."
"Who're you working with?"
"I'm doing a three -act with a couple of kinkers. Don Ray and
Joe Samuels, maybe you know tem. Comedy acrobatic with a table rock finish."
"Say, Paul, isn't that Nick Machedon over in the corner?
Used to do triple bars with his brother, the Machedon Brothers."
"Yeah, that's Nick. He's still doing a stick act."
"Last time I worked with Nick was on the Bell Circuit," I
reflected. "We toured Mexico together in 1927-28. I remember his knockout
finish; somersault over the middle bar, kip -up, into giant swings, and a double
away, all in swing time. It was sure a flash routine. Can he still clear
the middle bar?"
"Oh, he still manages to get from end -bar to end -bar, Paul
answered. "But he's cut the somersault; just does a fly -over now. And, of
course, he's slowed down. You know, Alfredo, there's so little work now that
an act can't keep in trim any more."
A performer standing close beside Paul broke into the conversation.
His face was vaguely familiar, but I could not recall him.
"How the hell can a performer do a good act these days, without a
chance to work and keep in practise?" he demanded. His tone was decidedly bitter.
FAIR BOOKING AGENCY
FORM C TEXT 8
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
"Say, what are all these joeys (i. e. clowns) doing here?"
I asked Hilbert,
"Trying to horn in on the Stadium show, Hubert replied.
"You mean that Cirque Olympe, or so called Greater European
Circus, that's going to open at the Chicago Stadium next week. Who's putting
it on?"
"The Stadium Corporation itself is running the show, but I
guess they're using mostly all Barnes -Carruthers acts."
"'Don't worry, old Mike Barnes hasgot a finger in the promotion,"
asserted Nick Machedon.
"Naturally Barnes has to hustle and promote a few dates to keep
his acts in chow money so they'll still be alive by the time the fair season
opens," commented Hubert.
"Yeah, its disgusting," Paul Armento put in. "Who the hell
ever heard of acts hanging around the fair booking offices at this time of the year?"
"Nobody did, until the last few years," Nick sighed reminiscently.
"Remember how we used to book fairs in the old vaudeville days? I remember
I always used to sign up with Mike Barnes for the following year. I'd bring
my photos, cuts, and catalogue matter up here and then forget about it.
I'd go out and play vaudeville, and this office woull never see me again until
it was time to open on the fairs."
"Say, do you think vaudeville will ever coma back?" a young chap
inquired innocently.
"Aw, for, wh aw, for Christ's sake!" snorted Hubert disgustedly,
as he strode across the roam and slumped over the railo
FAIR BOOKING. AGENCY
FORM C TEXT 9
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
"By the way," I interposed, "they don't give you a guarantee
in the contracts any more, do they?"
"No fair office does, not any more," Gus Gerbin stated, "A
fair contract to -day means only one thing. It gives the office you sign up
with the exclusive right to sell and handle your act during the fair season.
And if they only manage to sell you for two weeks you can't go anywhere
else and look for work. All the fair contracts issued to -day are one-
sided. They tie up the act, but don't obligate the office in any way."
"Yeah, but what to hell can you do about it?" asked
Enos Perrone, hopelessly.
The young chap came up for another attempt.
"Listen, you guys, no kidding. Ilea serious," he Insisted*
"Do you think vaudeville will ever came back?"